Third Place
by Lady Edelweiss
Summary: Lee Jordan, the Weasley twins' friend. That's what he'd always been known as. Always overshadowed by them. Here is his story. Title recently changed.
1. Tonks and the Letter

Disclaimer-I hereby disclaim all that is not mine to claim, and I claim all that is mine to claim.

A.N. It suddenly hit me. The life of Lee Jordan and his woes of being overshadowed by the Weasley twins. And even though I do use Gibberish for spell names, please, I implore of you, read and REVIEW!

Second (Or Third) Place

Chapter 1

Lee Jordan was a mischief-loving kid right from the start, ever since he was born, really. He was pretty darn smart too. He always god good grades, even though he preferred to apply his brain to thinking up the world's most hilarious pranks.

He was a Muggleborn, though his great grandmother was a squib. So he did know about magic somewhat, and odd things always seemed to happen when he was around, but even so, his parents really didn't think that he would become a wizard. So, of course it was pretty surprising when a Ministry of Magic official came to deliver Lee's Hogwarts letter. The official's name was Nymphadora Tonks. She was a fairly young witch, just recently graduated from Hogwarts herself. Lee remembered that fateful day very well.

Knock, knock.

"Lee, could you please get the door, and if it's Nikki's mother, tell them to wait a little. After all, your game doesn't start until 3:00."

"But mum, coach said we all need batting practice, and that we should be at the field and hour early," Lee grumbled as he shook all the glitter dust he'd been experimenting with out of his hair. He reached the door and opened it.

"Hello, is this the Jordan residence?" a lady with bright blue hair asked.

"Yes, it is. Are you Nikki's new baby-sitter?" Lee replied.

"No, I'm not. I've come to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry-" Tonks was cut off as Lee went into ecstasies of delight.

"Yes! I told mum, I told her I'd become a wizard! MUUUUUUUUUM!!!" He yelled up the stairs.

"What is all this commotion about Lee? Who are you? Please, do come in. You'll have to excuse Lee. He's very excited that his baseball team has made it to the play-offs."

"Mum, who cares about baseball right now?! I've been accepted at Hogwarts!" Lee bellowed.

"Oh, dearie me, is it true? I'm so proud of you Lee! You're the first in our family since your great-great uncle Marcus!" Mrs. Jordan exclaimed. Tonks chuckled.

"Yes, if you approve, he'll be attending Hogwarts starting September 1st. You're related to Marcus Jordan? Greatest beater Ravenclaw ever had, I heard. Could have played for Scotland if he hadn't gone off trying to tame Mandrakes. Lost too much blood from his ears and died a few years ago, I believe?"

"Yep. Great Grandma Angela told me all about him. He was her uncle. I'm going to be the greatest beater ever at Hogwarts! The greatest prankster too! Would you like to meet her? She wanted to be a witch, but she turned out to be a squib, unfortunately. She's up looking for pixies in the attic." Lee informed Tonks in an eager rush. He led her away to bombard her with questions about the wizarding world.

A considerable distance away, a set of twins where also preparing for their first year at Hogwarts too. Fred Weasley was an outspoken, mischievous, kid, planning on outshining all Hogwarts' legendary students. George Weasley was quieter, the follower, but one who loved chaos and troublemaking just as much as his twin. The pair had already succeeded on reaching a grand total of 1,243 pranks they had pulled off in their lives so far.

"Mum! Percy is badgering us to study for our end of the year tests when we haven't even started school yet!" Fred yelled.

"Mum! Fred and George have stolen my prefect badge!" Bill yelled.

"Mummy! Ron won't share the chocolate frogs, and he's already had more than half the box!" Ginny yelled.

"Mum! Fred and George have cast the Tidigattidigletidigale Charm and it's making everyone yell out complaints to you and I can't finish up my homework with all the noise, and I'd cast the countercharm, but then I'd receive a warning from the Ministry of Magic!" Charley yelled.

"Tattletalus, Undous!" Molly yelled.

"Well, the two greatest troublemakers at Hogwarts were probably Holly Ravenclaw (Rowena's niece) and her partner in crime Gregory Gryffindor (Godric's son). I suppose they felt they had a lot to live up to, with their relatives being the founders and all. They set nearly all the records. Minerva McGonagall broke a lot of them though. I was very shocked when I found out about her. She's one of the strictest teachers at Hogwarts. Then of course, would be James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew. They were quite a gang, I must tell you, and they were in their last few years when I was at Hogwarts. Broke only a few of Minerva's records though. Quite a lot of Holly's and Gregory's of course, since they were set more than a thousand years ago. There were countless others, I'm sure, but these people are legends." Tonks was giving Lee a narrative of who he would have to know about.

"Wow, is there a written record of all the, um records?"

"Hmmm, a record of the records, yes, at the back of Hogwarts, a History, there should be. For Quidditch records though, Madam Hooch can tell you all about that…"

September 1st was finally there. For Lee, the wait was almost unbearable. Tonks was quite nice, he thought. Teaching me all that stuff. He looked at the barrier he would have to walk through. Looked quite solid. A large family was passing by, and they had stopped right in front of the barrier.

"Bill and Charley, you two go first," a lady who looked like their mother commanded.

"Hello, people," Lee said as he walked up to the family.

"Why, hello, who are you may I inquire of you good sir?" One of the twins asked.

"Why, my name, sir, is Lee Jordan. May I inquire of yours, good sirs and good ladies?" Lee replied.

"Oh, smashing jolly to meet you, old chap! We are the family of Weasley. I am Fred, this is George, Ron, Ginny, Mum, and Dad," The other twin said. The little kids looked about 9 or 8 and were trying hard to restrain their laughter.

Of course, Fred, George and Lee, became very good friends immediately, and boarded the train together.


	2. The Trolley Lady and the Licorice Wands

Disclaimer-I wish so often that I own Harry Potter, but I don't. It's so sad.

A.N. Wow! People actually seem to like this one! Thanks for the reviews, people! I seem to like exclamation marks, don't I? Anyway, so far I think that this will follow Lee throughout his years at Hogwarts. The first chapter was getting ready for 1st year at Hogwarts, though.

Chapter 2- The train ride

Lee's pov.

Fred and George were hilarious. It seemed like I'd finally found my match in those two. The train ride was filled with explosions and colorful sparks in our compartment. All of us had been practicing over the summer with our new wands and could do many basic jinxes and hexes already. Around noon a lady with a food trolley came up.

"Anything off the cart, boys?" She asked. Of course, we immediately pounced on the treats. Exactly 54.2 seconds later (George timed us) our money bags were a _lot_ lighter.

But Fred had not let the poor lady go by without a trick on her. While I did most of the buying, and George the timing, Fred quietly slipped licorice wands with liquid inside of them that made the hair inside you ears grow really long and fuzzy, and your front teeth flashed with neon colors.

Sure enough, from the nest compartment we heard loud screams and shrieks. Apparently, they had heard all of our explosions, because we were their number one suspects.

"All right, which one of you did it, what exactly did you do, and will you reverse the effects?" One girl demanded to know. The tree of us burst out laughing.

"Well, we were working on it during the summer. Hahahaha! But without Lee showing up here, hahaha, we would never have been able to pull it off!" George managed to gasp out between uproarious laughs.

"Then suddenly the two girls also burst out laughing.

"I say, it was pretty funny, wasn't it? By the way, I'm Alicia Spinnet, and this here is Katie Bell. Who are you?" The other one calmed down enough to say in coherent words.

"Fred Weasley, George Weasley, and Lee Jordan. Very pleased to prank you," Fred replied. Then the door opened again.

"Hey, some of us are trying to hold a conversation without having to yell," a tall girl with her hair in a lot of long braids had entered.

"Yes, we demand to know what all these explosions, screams, and laughter was about I'm not wasting my breath starting another sentence, so I'll introduce us right now I'm Oliver Wood and this is my friend Angelina Johnson who are you?" The boy asked all in one breath and very quickly too.

"We're Lee Jordan, Fred Weasley, George Weasley, Alicia Spinnet, Katie Bell, we just pranked them as you have undoubtedly noticed, that was why they screamed, the explosions were various different experiments, and the laughing was us when we all decided that the prank was very funny," I talked as quickly as Oliver had spoken.

We all greeted each other and settled down for another round of hilarity, then the subject shifted over to Quidditch, which all of us enjoyed very immensely. Then, all too soon the train stopped as we had reached our destination of Hogsmead Station.


	3. The Sorting Hat and the Warning

Disclaimer- See first chapter.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last two chapters! Also, can you help me think up new pranks, people? And sorry, but I couldn't compose a sorting song. I'm not the world's greatest poet.

Chapter 3-Hogwarts

"We're here! Oh my gosh, this is way too exciting. Can you believe it? We are actually here!" Alicia squealed. Everybody started to swarm out of their compartments. Lee, Fred, George, Angelina, Alicia, and Katie said bye to Oliver, who was a third year.

"First years, over here! First years!" A giant of a man called out to them.

"Everyone here? Nobody left behind? All right then. I'm Hagrid, the gamekeeper at Hogwarts. Now, four to a boat," Hagrid told the first years. The boats started moving by themselves across a massive lake.

"There! I see Hogwarts. It's humongous!" Fred gasped. "Bill and Charlie and Percy told us it was a pretty big castle, but I never imagined it to be this big!"

"Well, Fred. They did send us pictures, but we just never bothered to look at them, thinking that we knew everything already," George reminded him.

"You didn't want to see pictures of Hogwarts? Boy, you two were pretty darn dumb," Lee told the twins.

"Hey, the boats stopped! We can get off now, you three!" Angelina informed the boys. The kids all walked up the steps to enormous oak double doors. There, a stern-looking lady met them.

"Thank you, Hagrid. I will take over from here. I am Professor McGonagall, your Transfiguration teacher and deputy headmistress. Follow me," she said to the first years. Professor McGonagall led them to a small chamber. They could hear the noise the rest of the school was making in the Great Hall.

"Now, as soon as we are ready, I will come back for you. You will then be sorted into your Houses. They are Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Slytherin, and Hufflepuff. Thank you." As she turned to leave, many snickers were heard from the first years. Lee had whispered a useful little charm as Professor McGonagall has spoken. Now her hat was wiggling and waving in all directions. Of course, McGonagall immediately identified the culprit.

"Mr. Jordan, kindly perform the counter charm for this and you will be receiving a detention," she told him. As he stopped the wiggling, she left.

"Nice one, Lee!" George complimented him.

"Now, that was pretty funny. Her hat was just-" Here Angelina started giggling, and soon everyone had joined in. They passed several minutes this way, and then McGonagall returned.

"Come, we are ready now." They were led away into the Great Hall. There were many oohs and aahs over this.

"Wow, look at the ceiling! It seems like it's not there at all! It's so pretty!" Katie exclaimed.

"It's enchanted to mirror the actual sky outside," a short boy with dark, wavy brown hair said. "It's all written in Hogwarts, a History." They had arrived at a three-legged stool with a hat perched on it. Many of the first years in line craned their necks to look at it.

The hat opened up a large tear at the brim and started singing. The song explained that all you had to do was put on the hat and it would sort you. Then McGonagall called up the first kid.

"Aberling, Timothy!" the boy who had commented on the ceiling walked up. The hat considered for quite a long time. Finally, it said, "Gryfindor!" The table that all of the Weasley brothers were seated at exploded with cheers.

"Bell, Katie!" Katie looked very nervous as she put on the hat. It immediately yelled, "Gryffindor!" Again, the Gryffindor table applauded and cheered.

"Bruce, Lionel!"

"Slytherin!" This time the table on the other end of the hall clapped politely. They looked a bit unpleasant.

"Collins, Olivia!" a plump little girl with short, honey-colored curls almost skipped up.

"Hufflepuff!" the hat called after a few seconds. Several kids later, Professor McGonagall came to, "Johnson, Angelina!" She sat on the hat for exactly 13.4 seconds (George hat gotten out his timer again) until the hat yelled, "Gryffindor!"

Then next came, "Jordan, Lee!" Lee gulped and slowly walked up to the hat.

"H-hello Sorting Hat," he thought.

"Well, you're the first to talk to me before a talked to you since, oh, Albus Dumbledore," the hat said. "Now, to business. You have a very good mind, just right for Ravenclaw. You have some guts in you, too, for Gryffindor. And lastly, you have a lot of ambition. You want to prove that you're worthy of Hogwarts. You'd do well in Slytherin if it wasn't for your parents. Half Muggle, half squib. The other Slytherins are very big on blood. No you'd do best in Ravenclaw."

"But Angelina's in Gryffindor, Katie's in Gryffindor, and most likely Fred and George will be in Gryffindor, too."

"You want to be in the same house as your friends? Well, you seem resolute. But with the Weasley twins. Are you absolutely certain?" Lee paused for a moment.

"Yes. Why not?"

"You'll be overshadowed. But, since you've made up your mind, GRYFFINDOR!" Lee hopped off and joined Katie and Angelina. He thought, 'Overshadowed? What does the hat mean? Oh well.'

"Wow. That took quite a while, Lee. What did the hat say?" Angelina asked.

"Well, it seemed to really want to put me in Ravenclaw, but I said I wanted to be with all of you," Lee said.

"I'm flattered," Oliver was a Gryffindor, too. Alicia, Fred, and George all joined them too.


	4. Timothy and the Balloon

_Terribly sorry I sort of abandoned fanfiction for a while, but I had some other things and projects going on. Then, today, I read over some of my stories' and realized they were horrible writing and they seriously need some touching up. But it would take much too long to switch all of the chapters with new ones, so right now all I'm doing is writing new chapters. Hopefully with better editing and writing. _

_As always, thanks to all who reviewed!_

_Disclaimer: See Chapter 1. _

Chapter 4: Timothy and the Balloon

The first days at Hogwarts flew by in a daze. I was only happy to have survived the piles of essays the teachers were loading on them already. I'd narrowly avoided detention with Professor Binns by copying Angelina's essay.

"I don't think he even reads them, he just randomly scribbles out grades," Oliver had told us. Fred had even gone so far as to write an essay on the proper method of making an ice cream sundae to test this theory. He didn't even get any points docked. We all decided then and there that History of Magic would be a pushover.

Of course, Professors Snape and McGonagall were another story. Not only did Alicia receive a detention and 40 points off Gryffindor for complaining about the cold in the dungeons, but also Fred and George each had a solo detention with Filch for yelling at Madam Hooch, who said they were too young to be on the Gryffindor Quidditch team. I'm _extremely_ glad we decided that the twins would ask, and not me.

McGonagall was a bit better, but not by much. I hadn't served my detention yet, but I sensed she was watching me like a hawk. I didn't dare pull anything off in _her_ class.

And then was the weekend. I decided it would be lovely to start it off with a bang. So, Friday night, I snuck out of our dormitory and rigged it up. Right over the teachers' table, due to set off during breakfast tomorrow.

* * *

"Lee! Lee! Get up!" Something was jabbing me repeatedly. I only mumbled and rolled over in my bed. It was much too warm and comfy to get up yet. Besides, it was Saturday. It was a crime to try to get someone up early on Saturday. 

"JORDAN!" Apparently, Fred woke people up using a different method from the poke-repeatedly method. He yelled in people's ears. And it worked.

"What?" I sat up in my bed. That voice sounded suspiciously like a teacher yelling at me. I looked around wildly, expecting McGonagall to be sitting on the cabinet. "Oh. It's you, Fred. What?" The twins were looking at me, George looking very excited.

"Come on, get dressed, giddy-up, giddy-up, you do _not_ want to miss this," George told me in a rush, and threw me various pieces of clothing. I caught them, yanked his curtains back closed, and started dressing.

"Come down immediately! We'll meet you in the Great Hall!" I heard Fred say as they headed out through the dormitory door. I groaned as I looked at the clock. 7:30.

Cursing the weekend gods, I got up. Timothy had already gotten up and gone to breakfast, the early-riser. Trey was still snoring softly in the bed next to mine, though. I debated whether or not to chuck a pillow at him, just to be evil, but I decided to take pity on him, and went down to the common room quietly.

It was quite empty, most people still sleeping peacefully in their warm, comfy beds. I wondered what exactly it was that the twins wanted me to see. Well, I wouldn't find out unless I went down.

So, after several minutes of faulty navigation along pretty much the entire seventh floor, I managed to find a staircase. Unfortunately, it only went down to the fourth floor. Swearing, I tried to find a way out, but it seemed that the stairway ended at a dead-end hallway. Dead-end on _all_ ends. Swearing even more loudly (I was in a bad mood, could you tell?), I turned back to the stairs, but they were already folding themselves up and going towards some secret destination.

I let out a frustrated groan, and tried feebly to jump up to it, but I had never been a really good jumper. I fell short by about three feet. So, being the devious mastermind that I am, I decided to take a different approach.

I started pounding on the walls, screaming for help. But instead of someone coming running to my aid, guess what happened? I fell through the wall. Startled, I stayed on the floor for a few seconds, and looked at the wall. It was a normal-looking stone wall all right, but as I tentatively put my hand on it and pushed, it gave shimmered ever so slightly and my hand went right through.

Shaking my head and muttering darkly about crazy architects, I departed once again on my great quest for the Great Hall.

Several more minutes later, I was on the right floor, all right, but I was still lost. "You'd think a Great Hall would be a bit more conspicuous," I said to myself.

Finally, I found it. Giving a grateful sigh, I pushed open the doors and blinked. Maybe it wasn't the Great Hall after all. But no, I could see the enchanted ceiling above me, all… enchanted.

But the tables and benches – Someone had shoved them haphazardly against the walls, the benches teetering on top. And they were on fire. I covered my mouth, shocked. Did Fred and George do _that_? But I realized there was something unusual about the fire. I could feel no heat coming from the wood, and there wasn't any smoke either. What's more, I didn't see any sign of the wood burning.

There were several people running around screaming their heads off, and Professor Sprout, who was the only teacher there, trying to create some kind of order within the confusion.

Grinning, I spotted two red heads, dodging around the panicking students. They were laughing. Yep, it was Fred and George who set this up all right.

I saw a lone figure up on the platform-type-thingy that the staff table was usually situated upon. He was craning his neck, apparently looking at something up there. I covered my mouth. In all the chaos of the morning, I had forgotten all about _my_ prank.

I uncovered my mouth and opened it to warn him, but before any sound could come out, it fell. A great big balloon, magically expanded and charmed to stay up behind the gargoyles above the big windows. I looked at my watch. 8:10. Yep, it was time for the charm to come off, all right. I would have been proud of managing to pull that specific charm off at any other time, but this was a different case. The tables were on fire, and –

SPLAT. I had to resist the urge to let out a giggle as the kid (I saw that it was Timothy) toppled over with the force of the entire balloon. Uh-oh. It had way too much force for one person. I had made it so that it would cover the entire staff table.

I moaned. It exploded, dumping gallons of Coke all over Timothy, and everyone else in the general vicinity. I ran up to him, trying to see if he was all right, but it was hard to tell with all the soda sloshing all over the place. I saw that a lot of it had ended up in the fire, effectively putting it out.

I was distracted for w few seconds by Professor Sprout, who was now yelling at Fred and George. Apparently she had found the culprits of the fire.

But behind me, I heard a feeble cough. "Are you all right, Aberling?" He only shot me a very dirty look. I took that as a no.

Now more students and teachers were pouring into the Great Hall, all of them viewing the mess with confusion. McGonagall was striding up to Timothy and me.

"_What_ exactly went on in here?" she asked in an icy tone. I knew the question was directed at me.

"W-well, I-I c-came in h-here-" Professor Sprout, who was leading Fred and George over, cut me short.

"Professor McGonagall. These two are responsible for setting magical fire to the tables and setting off a balloon filled with this… stuff," she said distastefully.

"Actually, Professor," I started, but saw George shaking his head at me. Well, if they were willing to take all the blame, that was fine with me.

So I simply stood there, listening to Fred and George arguing with Timothy. In the end, they were each assigned a week's detention, 60 points were taken off Gryffindor, and they were led off to McGonagall's office to recieve a severe talking-to.


	5. Hagrid and the Pumpkin

_And I'm back! School had completely taken over my life for a while, so, here I am several months later, back to writing. Writing minimally, yes, but it still counts as writing. Er, right? So, I shall cease my rambling for now._

_Eternal gratefulness to reviewers, if I didn't have any, I doubt there'd be any motivation for the stories to continue._

_Disclaimer: See Chapter 1._

Chapter 5: Hagrid and the Pumpkin

It was a month after the balloon incident, and I still felt rotten. Fred and George simply laughed it off when I tried talking to them. It was clear that they didn't mind taking the blame for me. In fact, they even seemed to enjoy it in some strange way! But a week's detention? I shuddered at the mere thought of it.

But I couldn't let them take _all_ the blame. I came out with the truth to Timothy. Bad idea, it seemed. He'd simply glared at me again, and hadn't spoken more than a few, cold words to me since. It was considerably more awkward, considering the fact that we shared a dormitory, and he wouldn't speak to either of the twins either. Poor Trey was caught in the middle. He wasn't very good friends with any of us, though he was nice enough, I supposed. Occasionally he (along with Katie, who was also rather a bad student) went to Timothy for help, and occasionally he dropped into the Quidditch conversation held with Oliver, the twins, and the girls.

We'd finally gotten past the first few weeks of lessons, where all the teachers did was drone over and over the basics and talk about what we'd _eventually_ do in class. Professor Flitwick had let us try basic color manipulation charms at last, and McGonagall let us start transfiguring larger objects into small ones, which was considerably more difficult than the matches we'd been working on for a while.

Potions, however, if possible, got worse. Snape was giving us increasingly more difficult potions by the day at an alarming rate. We also discovered (through much trial and error) that he seemed to sniff out pranks with that big nose of his. The twins and I had each already procures at least half a dozen detentions from him, and the rest of Gryffindor, not just Timothy, was beginning to groan about all the house points we were losing. Hufflepuff, Slytherin, and Ravenclaw simply ignored us. And being ignored didn't really seem like part of Fred's plans.

It was a cold Friday afternoon in October, and Fred and I were sitting glumly in the common room, watching the rain splash on the window. George had left it open, saying he liked the smell of rain. Doubtless he liked seeing us get wet, too. He was off in the corner playing checkers with Alicia, while the two of us were left in front of the window.

Finally, Fred spoke up. "Why are we sitting here?"

"I dunno. Why?" I responded rather heartlessly.

"I dunno either. That's why I asked you, smart one!" Fred said, getting up. "Come on, let's go. It's almost Halloween. There's bound to be _something_ we can do around here while those lovebirds stare at those pieces."

"Yeah," I said, warming to the idea. The three of us had been far too subdued over October. Subdued was _not_ what I'd imagined my stay at Hogwarts to be like. So, while George was engrossed in the checkerboard, Fred and I snuck along the walls and out of the common room.

Pretty soon, we were running down the long seventh floor hallway, laughing like maniacs. "Where the devil are we going?" I yelled at Fred.

"No clue!" he yelled back, pushing his way through a crowd of Hufflepuff fifth-years. Shaking my head, hunched over with laughter at the sheer randomness of this chase around castle, I plowed through the Hufflepuffs as well, watching Fred trip over his robes. Skidding to a halt, I stood over him as we both caught our breath.

"So," I panted.

"So," Fred said, grinning from ear to ear. "Halloween, you know. Lots do to during Halloween. Oliver says there will be quite a few decorations up."

I stared at him. "Bloody hell. You're a genius."

Fred nodded, then stood up. "Quite obvious, actually," he replied, and bowed. "George will be mad."

"Yep," I said happily, and on we continued with our mad quest to sabotage Halloween decorations.

* * *

I looked at my watch. 4:32. "Fred, haven't we been wandering around for quite enough time by now? We started at one!"

Fred shook his head. "I'm not giving up, Lee. Well, at least not until dinnertime. But that's not for another hour or so, so come on, slowpoke!" Scowling, I stuck out my tongue at him, but he had turned around already.

* * *

After another half an hour of pointless plodding, I said, exasperated. "Where are we?" We'd somehow managed to wander through a courtyard, over a bridge over a strange indoor stream, and outside. When Fred didn't answer, I kicked a pebble in his direction and looked up. There was a very long silence. Finally, I voiced an almost inaudible, "Whoa."

Fred turned to look at me, and raised his eyebrows. "Told ya," he said simply, and quickly ducked behind a tree. Starting to chuckle, I followed him into the shadows.

For several long seconds, we simply stared at the sight before us. It was a pumpkin. Surrounded by several other pumpkins. But not just any pumpkin. A big one. A very big one.

"So," Fred finally said in a hushed voice. "What do we do now that we've found something?" I didn't reply. I was too busy looking at the pumpkin, and thinking. Either that pumpkin would be used as a decoration (and make numerous pumpkin pies), or I was a candy cane.

"Well, here's what I think," I whispered. After much shaking of heads and a quick whispered argument, Fred and I reached a decision for a decent plan. Not as good as my original idea, I thought a bit grumpily, but decent, all the same.

Giving our surrounding area shifty glances, we drew out our wands and got to work.

* * *

About an hour later, we beheld our masterpiece. It did not take very long at all for me to be overcome with a violent case of the giggles. Fred look at me, amused, looked back at what we had done to the pumpkin, and pulled a face. That only sent me further into hysterics. Which sent Fred into hysterics. And on and on and on and on.

When we heard heavy thumping footsteps coming up to us, we were still rolling around on the ground, getting leaves all over our robes and in our hair. I had managed to call down somewhat, but Fred was still howling.

"What're ye two doin' here?" A voice growled from above us. The little voice inside my head chimed, _uh-oh_. In front of me was a pair of exceedingly large black boots. I blinked. Fred had finally stopped laughing, and an ominous sort of silence filled the air. My eyes slowly followed the boots up, and saw a giant. His face was half-hidden behind a tangled beard, but I recognized him as the one who'd led us to the castle on the boats. He hadn't seemed quite so large then, when I was surrounded by all the other first-years. But now, alone, outside, lying on the ground with only Fred for company, and a discriminating pumpkin behind us, the man seemed almost… threatening. I heard Fred give an audible gulp.

"I said, what're ye two doing here?" he repeated.

"Well, we were just, we, uh," I sat up and managed to say before faltering.

Fred sat up, too. "We though we'd save you the trouble of carving the pumpkin," he said in a falsely cheery voice.

The giant looked at us for a very long while. Then his eyes shifted to the pumpkin. "Weasley," he said to Fred. "None o' yer brothers ever give me trouble. 'Course, Charlie's always taggin' along behind me te show him some beast or other. Very thoughtful an' all of ye to carve the pumpkin and save me all the trouble of doin' it meself, but didn't Molly ever teach yer how to do it properly?" Then he turned to me. "An' you. I dunno who _you_ are. But you could use a little lesson in pumpkin carvin', too."

When neither of made a move, he hauled us up by our arms. "Come on, come on. This way, when Filch comes lookin' fer the culprit on Halloween night, ye can say that ye already served detention with me."

* * *

And so, over the next two hours, we took the insides out of the pumpkin and fixed our carving. By the end of our little session, my arms were aching, because Hagrid, as we found out his name was, forbid us from using our wands and handed us two large knifes instead. Well, I suppose it wasn't entirely Hagrid's fault as Fred and I had been a bit, er, _elaborate_.

Finally, he let us go and Fred and I made the trek back up to Gryffindor Tower, groaning about our arms.

And when we finally got up there I realized the we had missed dinner and my stomach was getting mad at me.


End file.
